Gidemy Elibray

Items

• Accounting and social capital : a review and reflections on future research opportunities
  We explore how the concept of social capital is used and theorised in accounting research by performing a structured literature review, and a critical analysis, of articles published in leading accounting journals. We identify two research paths, namely (1) how social capital influences accounting, and (2) how accounting influences social capital formation. We highlight that both accounting and social capital emanate from the social connections between individuals. We conclude that, although social capital is important in accounting, it is still under-researched. This provides research opportunities for theory development, and interdisciplinary perspectives. We offer several further suggestions for future research.
• The influence of entrepreneurial bricolage and design thinking on opportunity development
  DATA AVAILABITY STATEMENT: Data are available upon request from the corresponding author, C.M. Joynt. It is held securely in the repository of the university and is only accessible by the researchers involved in the study.
• Corporate social responsibility disclosure assurance and financial performance : a cross-country study
  Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018.
• The relationship between conservatism in financial reporting and subsequent equity returns
  This study investigates whether or not long-term discretionary accounting conservatism has benefits for equity investors, as measured by long-term subsequent equity returns. Based on the long-term relationship between cash flows and earnings documented by Dechow (1994), this paper develops a new proxy for discretionary accounting conservatism. This proxy utilises earnings before interest and tax and cash flow generated by operations, highlighting conservative discretion within earnings. Importantly, and in contrast to prior research, this study controls for market assessments of the growth prospects of sample firms and finds that discretionary accounting conservatism is insignificantly related to subsequent equity returns, once market assessments of growth prospects have been controlled for. Compensating for cross-sectional differences, based on the relative gearing of firms, reveal that the relationship between subsequent equity returns and discretionary accounting conservatism remains insignificant, regardless of the level of gearing of the sample firm.
• The taxation of foreign investment income
  This article analyses the principles for determining the source of income in South Africa for tax purposes. The fact that South Africa is increasingly becoming part of the international community, has resulted in changes in the economic environment. This means that current legislation is inadequate to prevent the erosion of the South African tax bases. The South African Revenue Services therefore introduced new legislation to prevent this loss of income. In this article the legislation is examined and illustrated in a practical situation and problems with the application of the various sections are identified.
• Qualitative accounting research in the time of COVID-19 – changes, challenges and opportunities
  PURPOSE : COVID-19 restrictions have severely impacted access to the traditional data and data sources used by qualitative researchers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the corresponding challenges and opportunities of conducting qualitative research in accounting. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : This study highlights the opportunities opened up by the way the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting qualitative accounting research, discussing the most common qualitative accounting research methods, practices and techniques used during the different phases of research. FINDINGS : The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping some of the traditional research methods, practices and techniques in qualitative accounting research. Particularly, academic researchers who are reluctant to use the new technologies need to adapt their research approach, deal with the new challenges and exploit the opportunities to conduct research in a COVID-19 environment. Some changes in research methods, practices and techniques will affect accounting research in the long term. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS : This paper could be a valuable resource for qualitative accounting researchers. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : This paper is one of the first to focus on the changes, challenges and opportunities for conducting qualitative accounting research in a COVID-19 setting. As such, this paper could be a valuable resource for different types of qualitative accounting researchers, specifically the discussion of ways to deal with the changes and challenges, as well as the opportunities, as summarised in the table.
• The conceptual framework, accounting principles and what we believe is true
  What we have been taught doesn't matter, what we believe is true, is apparently the view shared by many accountants (and accounting students!) when it comes to the conceptual foundations of accounting. Some misconceptions regarding some of these issues are explored with reference to the conceptual foundations of accounting and the role and function of the conceptual framework. An attempt is made to bring some context to a much-neglected area of accounting education, probably resulting in a fairly high degree of ignorance amongst average accountants regarding conceptual issues. Since "principles" are essentially a theoretical construct formulated within the context of a specific philosophical approach and certain taxonomical imperatives, a body of theory underlying the framework is assumed. Such body of theory is seldom studied by accountants and scantily taught by South African universities, yet "principles-based" standards are issued, discussed, criticised and applied. A number of observations are made regarding the nature and formulation of theories in general, followed by a brief overview of accounting theory in particular.
• Non-conforming policies vs conforming policies
  The restriction on the deductibility of insurance premiums in terms of section l1 (w) of the Income Tax Act ("the Act") has created constraints regarding the implementation of deferred compensation schemes. However, for insurance premiums that are not deductible in terms of the Act, there seem to be additional opportunities for the introduction of a deferred compensation plan that could result in tax savings. In this article the relevant Income Tax legislation and principles, as established by the courts, are analyzed in order to determine the tax implications and benefits of a traditional deferred compensation plan. The tax and cash flow savings were furthermore, compared for deferred compensation plans utilising policies of which the premiums are deductible in terms of the Act as well as policies of which the premiums are not deductible.
• Problems in respect of adherence to disclosure requirements regarding interim financial reporting in South Africa - an overview and recommendations to solve these problems
  For years, interim financial reports in South Africa were regulated by the South African Companies Act No. 61 of 1973 (as amended) (i.e. statutory requirements) and by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Listing Requirements (i.e. regulatory requirements) only. However, on the international front, major progress was being made in respect of improving the quality of interim financial reporting. South Africa soon followed suit and issued its own accounting statement, AC 127, which is based on the international standard (IAS 34). The School of Accountancy at the University of Pretoria commenced a research project on interim financial reporting in 1997 to investigate compliance with related reporting requirements. This paper is a product of the project. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to: Compare the requirements stated in IAS 34 and AC 127 with the local regulatory and statutory requirements, to determine whether these requirements are duplicated and to establish in which respect the accounting standards require additional disclosure requirements. Provide an overview of the extent to which companies listed on the JSE adhered to IAS 34 and AC 127 and complied with regulatory and statutory requirements in their interim financial reports in the period 1997 to 1999. Make recommendations regarding the improvement of local statutory and regulatory disclosure requirements.
• Student experiences studying accounting in English as an additional language
  PURPOSE : This paper aims to explore the individual and social learning experiences of first-year accounting students studying in English as an additional language. The challenges of these students relating to listening, reading, speaking and writing in English, and the impact of these on their academic outcomes, are examined. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : A qualitative case study design was used. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 students, both academically successful and unsuccessful, who had completed the first year. A thematic analysis of the data was conducted and a hybrid approach of deductive and inductive coding was used to interpret the data. This entailed the application of a language skills-based framework of teaching and learning to the first-order process of coding. An iterative and reflective process allowed themes to emerge from the data. These themes, in turn, triggered second-order codes that resonated with aspects of the interactionist approach to second language acquisition (SLA). FINDINGS : The themes that emerged indicated that students’ ability to interact with their study material, and their exposure to positive verbal interaction opportunities in both formal and informal contexts, may have contributed to their academic success. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : It is recommended that an interactionist perspective be considered when designing curriculum resources and accounting language learning activities for first-year accounting students. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : It is anticipated that the results will contribute towards building a bridge between accounting education and SLA research and provide a more informed linguistic foundation for incorporating language skills into the accounting curriculum.
• A comprehensive literature review on, and the construction of a framework for, environmental legitimacy, accountability and proactivity
  This paper identifies three conceptually distinct, but interrelated concepts regarding corporate environmental behaviour from the literature e environmental legitimacy, environmental accountability, and environmental proactivity e and shows how they can be integrated into a single framework. This is done in a context where prior studies in the literature do not relate these concepts to each other or place the concepts within a meaningful context, nor integrate them into a single framework. The framework demonstrates an organisational journey towards achieving legitimacy in environmental endeavours. Environmental legitimacy is conditional upon the public evaluation of corporate environmental performance and environmental reporting (environmental accountability), which in turn, requires organisations to invest in environmental management and accounting systems and stakeholder engagement (environmental proactivity). The paper identifies company, stakeholder and other characteristics that influence the constructs in the framework and also propose a research agenda based on this framework. Environmental performance constitutes the central concept in the framework, acknowledging that improved environmental performance promotes the ultimate goal of sustainability. The framework suggests that the judicious management of environmental performance and reporting, the two components of environmental accountability, results in environmental legitimacy. Furthermore, environmental accountability can be enhanced by environmental proactivity, a concept comprising environmental management and environmental accounting, as well as stakeholder engagement. This synthesis of the factors that influence and contribute to environmental performance is the framework's main contribution.
• Enhancing the accountant's awareness of change
  The business environment of the 1990s has been subjected to rapid and accelerated change. Times of change give rise to a more uncertain and complex environment in which businessess have to operate, but they also provide opportunities for those businessess that understand and exploit change. Accountants would create new opportunities for themselves, their discipline and their profession if they understood and accepted change. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to improve the accountant's working knowledge of the nature and pace of change and of human response to change. Secondly, it aims to identify some of the opportunities that arise from change, which accountants can exploit to enhance their product - namely business information.
• Belastinghantering van voorsienings met die verkoop van 'n besigheid as 'n lopende saak
  Reports the results of a study conducted to analyse the tax position of the transfer of contingent liabilities and provisions within the selling of a business, for both the seller and the buyer. Provides some guidelines on the taxability and deductibility of provisions for tax purposes
• Realising the vision of intergrated reporting : a critical viewpoint
  The purpose of this paper is firstly to determine whether the International Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework is sufficiently robust to act as the guide for the IR movement. The secondary purpose is to speculate on the constraints that IR will face on its journey towards achieving the aims and vision of the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council). The paper is written in the form of a critical viewpoint, and will engage with the relevant academic literature and industry-led initiatives to achieve its objectives. The main finding of this paper is that the potential of the International <IR> Framework towards achieving its objectives lies more with the way it is applied than the way it was written. Academic literature does however highlight a number of potential constraints that will have to be overcome if integrated reporting is to achieve its long-term vision of financial stability and sustainability.
• Measuring learners’ perceptions of a team-taught learning environment: development and validation of the Learners’ Team Teaching Perceptions Questionnaire (LTTPQ)
  Team teaching is a teaching model in which teachers work collaboratively in the preparation, teaching and evaluation of a course. Literature suggests that team teaching potentially provides rich and varied lessons, increased support and learning gains. However, team teaching possibly also could cause some confusion. To support the implementation of team teaching, stakeholders (teachers and policy makers) require an instrument that offers insights to support their decision making. The present study describes the development and validation of an easy-to-use questionnaire to explore learners’ perceptions of team teaching. The questionnaire was developed and validated in four stages: an extensive literature review (1) resulted in a preliminary version of the questionnaire (2) containing advantages and disadvantages for learners of team teaching. Next, a pilot study (3) was conducted, followed by a validation study (4) based on confirmatory factor analysis in two different learning environments of secondary education (Belgium, n = 229 pupils) and higher education (South Africa, n = 350 students). The final questionnaire comprises 16 items and four factors and appears to be valid, internally consistent and reliable.
• Talking during a test?! Embracing mobile instant messaging during assessment
  This study reports on the incorporation of mobile instant messaging (MIM) in assessments, as a collaborative learning tool, to enable students to socially construct knowledge and develop their collaborative problem solving competence, while being assessed individually. In particular, this study explores: what is the extent and timing of students’ use of MIM to communicate with other students while being assessed individually? What communicative activities are evident in the content of students’ MIM communications while being assessed individually? How do students experience being able to use MIM while being assessed individually? The results of this study’s analysis of the messages sent during various assessments suggests that when incorporating MIM into assessments, instructors should consider the objective of those assessments together with the nature (e.g. essay style) and the stakes of the assessments as these appear to influence the extent, timing and content of the instant messaging communications by the students during the assessment. A survey of the students suggested that their experiences of being able to use MIM during assessments were largely positive due to the learning opportunities, collaboration and teamwork, authenticity and equity that the introduction of instant messaging during assessment enabled.
• Board characteristics and corporate social responsibility : a meta-analytic investigation
  Boards of directors affect corporate strategy and decision-making through monitoring of management and resource provision. Recently, an increasing number of studies have examined the relationships between board characteristics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). These studies have yielded inconsistent findings. This article therefore reports the results of a study applying meta-analytical techniques to a sample of 82 empirical studies to help clarify the relationships between board characteristics and CSR. Although prior research has tended to apply relatively simplistic models investigating the impact of individual board characteristics independently and only directly, we adopt a more complex perspective to shed new light on the board characteristics–CSR nexus. Specifically, we use a meta-analytic path model that accounts for the potential interplay between board characteristics in determining CSR and tests whether the presence of a CSR committee plays a meditating role. Our findings suggest that board size, board independence, and female board representation are partially interrelated with each other and jointly influence CSR directly as well as indirectly via the presence of a CSR committee. In addition, we find that country-level institutional factors act as moderators and that the relationships differ with regard to the specific dimension of CSR (i.e., social, environmental, or aggregate).
• Earnings management through loss avoidance : does South Africa have a good story to tell?
  The purpose of this study is to determine whether South African managers manage earnings to avoid reporting small losses (small earnings decreases). The study covers all the companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2003 to 2011. In line with Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), the cross-sectional distributions of earnings and changes in earnings are examined and the distributions are shown in histograms. Previous research (using data from the United States) has shown that the distribution curve for both the earnings and the change in earnings variable had noticeably fewer observations just below zero than would normally be expected, and a significantly higher number of observations just above zero. This pattern in the distributions suggests that managers manage reported earnings to ensure that earnings do not fall below a specific threshold, this being zero or the previous year’s performance. Interestingly, and in contrast with the previous literature, using the Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) research model of analysis, our results show no evidence of managers in South Africa managing earnings to avoid reporting small losses or small decreases in earnings. A possible reason for this could be the relatively smaller size of the JSE (compared with stock exchanges in the United States). In addition, and more important, is the possibility that investors and analysts in South Africa may be fixated on other performance indicators, such as revenue and headline earnings per share, rather than on earnings (profits). This study adds to the limited research on earnings management in South Africa, which is a developing economy. Furthermore, previous research shows an inverse relationship between earnings management and earnings quality. The results of this study may therefore be useful to the users and the regulators of financial reports, both are concerned with earnings for the purposes of assessing the cost of capital and how companies utilise their resources.
• Shareholder's corporate environmental disclosure needs
  We do a survey of individual shareholders' corporate environmental disclosure needs. We find that South African individual shareholders require companies to disclose the following specific environmental information: environmental risks and impacts, environmental policy, measurable environmental targets, performance against targets, environmental costs disclosed separately, and an independent environmental audit report. Respondents prefer this information in a separate section of the annual report and on company websites. Individual shareholders want such disclosure to be prescribed by law and/or stock exchange rules. The most popular reason why they want environmental information disclosed is to hold companies accountable for their environmental stewardship. A high percentage of individual shareholders also indicate that they want disclosure because they are concerned about climate change. These findings imply that legislators and standard setters may have to consider changing disclosure laws and standards.
• An empirical analysis of career choice factors that influence first-year Accounting students at the University of Pretoria : a cross-racial study
  This cross-cultural study examined the career choices of Asian, black and white students at the University of Pretoria to identify the factors motivating Accountancy students to become chartered accountants (CAs), as only 2.5% (609) of 24 308 registered CAs in South Africa in 2005 were black, and only 6% (1573) were Indian. Understanding the attitudes and the perceptions of CA first-year students (identifying key career choice factors) can help course administrators/curriculum designers (the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Public Accountants and Auditors' Board (PAAB)) to align marketing and recruiting strategies with specific personal occupational preferences of different racial groups enrolled for local CA courses. Factors such as decision time-frame of career choice, socio-economic background, students' perceptions of the benefits/constraints of the CA profession, and other jobrelated factors, were analysed. Students attributed their career choice to their school Accounting performance. Most chose this career in Grades 8 to 11. All three groups like the availability of employment as a CA. Constraints were the cost of qualifying (according to black students), and the difficulty of qualifying (Asian and white students).
• Understanding how managers institutionalise sustainability reporting : evidence from Australia and New Zealand
  PURPOSE : The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainability reporting managers (SRMs) institutionalise sustainability reporting within organisations. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : In total, 35 semi-structured interviews with SRMs in Australia and New Zealand were analysed using an institutional work perspective. FINDINGS : SRMs’ institutional work can be categorised into four phases with each phase representing a different approach to sustainability reporting. Organisations transition from phase one to four as they achieve a higher level of maturity and a deeper embedding and routinisation of sustainability reporting. These include educating and advocacy work undertaken by engaging with managers (phase one), transitioning to a decentralised sustainability reporting process (phase two), transitioning to leaner, focussed, materiality driven sustainability reporting (phase three), and using sustainability key performance indicators and materiality assessment reports for planning, decision-making, goal setting, performance appraisal, and incentives (phase four). However, SRMs face challenges including their inexperience, limited time and resources, lack of management commitment to sustainability reporting and low external interest in sustainability reporting. The study identifies ten reasons why material issues are not always (adequately) disclosed. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : This study recommends more training and development for SRMs, and that regulation be considered to mandate the disclosure of the materiality assessments in sustainability reports. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : This research extends the existing literature examining how sustainability reports are prepared and sheds further light on how a materiality assessment is undertaken. The study identifies ten reasons for the non-disclosure of material matters, including but not limited to, legitimacy motives. Researchers can use these reasons to refine their methods for evaluating published sustainability reports. At a theoretical level, the study provides four observations that institutional researchers should consider when examining forms of institutional work.
• The awareness level of different stakeholder groups and their willingness to support corporate environmental reporting in South Africa
  Thesis (D Com (Accounting Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
• The process of control self-assessment and its use in risk management
  Organisations are exposed to various forms of risks. Business risk is the threat that the objectives of an organisation will not be achieved. Management is responsible to address the risks facing the organisation. Management should identify the risks that threaten the organisation and ensure that the total level of risk is reduced. Management makes use of the internal audit function to assist them in the risk management process. The methods used to identify and evaluate risks will differ. One method frequently used, is control selfassessment. This is an approach used to actively take responsibility and ownership for developing, assessing, maintaining and monitoring controls to address business risk. This article will show that it is the responsibility of the management of an organisation to control and manage risks and that the internal audit function can assist management with this process through the use of control selfassessment. The process, various methods and tools used for control selfassessment, will also be discussed.
• How management control systems can enable, constrain, and embed integrated reporting
  DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Data is available from the authors upon request.
• More corporate environmental reporting in South Africa?
  The environment is establishing itself as an important business issue. There are no laws or regulations to enforce environmental disclosure or reporting in South Africa, yet it is on the increase. However, the reporting tends to be biased and general in nature. The amount and the quality of environmental reporting will only be improved if made compulsory. This will only be feasible if the relevant parties are in favour. A survey was done amongst the preparers and auditors of financial statements as well as others, to establish whether they would be willing to support additional environmental reporting. A large number of individuals are indeed in favour of more compulsory corporate environmental reporting.